Medina Spirit Appeal Filed in Kentucky Circuit Court

Amr Zedan and Bob Baffert have jointly filed a proceeding for judicial review of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's disqualification of would-be winner Medina Spirit  from the 2021 Kentucky Derby (G1).

The petition was filed in Franklin Circuit Court in Frankfort, Ky., Sept. 12 and includes a protest of the 90-day suspension of Baffert's Kentucky trainer's license. Baffert served the suspension after being denied a stay by KHRC and the courts.

According to the petition, Zedan's and Baffert's claims fall into three categories. First they claim the “laboratory limit of detection” used to determine the presence of betamethasone in Medina Spirit's system "is contrary to the plain terms of KHRC regulations and is void as arbitrary and capricious." They also argue that KHRC’s exercise of rule making and adjudicatory powers is illegal. Finally, the petition alleges that "summary penalties imposed against Zedan are unconstitutional, arbitrary, and capricious."

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Thus another chapter of the Medina Spirit controversy begins two years and four months after the colt crossed the finish line first in the Kentucky Derby. The case is assigned Judge Thomas Wingate, who is already familiar with the parties from previous cases he heard.

Baffert and Zedan saw their appeal at the regulatory level of the stewards' decision to disqualify Medina Spirit denied by the KHRC when in August it upheld the disqualification.